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Published: 21 May 2024
The UNICEF Venture Fund is committed to diversity and inclusion in its approach to early-stage investing and catalyzing novel innovations developed by startups leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data science (DS), drones, blockchain, or extended reality (XR). These innovations aim to address the unmet needs of marginalized and underserved children and their families.
In collaboration with GITEX Africa, the Venture Fund launches The Gender- Responsive Innovation Challenge (GRIC).
The challenge: Recognizing structural and systemic barriers in the technology sector which lead to the dominance of certain types of solutions and founders, the UNICEF Venture Fund is seeking to facilitate an inclusive and gender-responsive innovation in three key areas:
Area 1: Investing in diverse and underrepresented founders (especially women founders)
Area 2: Increasing the availability of digital products and services that can solve the specific unmet needs of vulnerable and underrepresented populations (such as children, women, people living with disabilities and refugees)
Area 3: Facilitating inclusive user design in the development of innovation to
The GRIC is an opportunity to recognise companies leading the way for developing gender-responsive solutions and/or businesses in Africa. Its primary objective is to identify, recognise and invest in companies facilitating outcomes that can help close the gender gap.
| Application Deadline | May 31, 2024 |
| Funding Type | Partially Funded |
| Type | Entrepreneurs |
| Sponsor | United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) |
| Gender | Men and Women |
Companies will receive mentorship and technical assistance from Venture Fund experts to enhance their investment readiness and potential for future funding from the Venture Fund. It will comprise:
Only entities that fulfill these mandatory requirements will be considered eligible:
? Registered as a private company at the time of the Innovation Fund award (projected: 3 months from submission of EOI)
? A private company registered in a UNICEF programme country
? Working on open source technology solutions (or willing to be open source) under the following licenses or their equivalent:
(i) for software, a GNU General Public license, MIT or BSD,
(ii) for hardware, a CERN, MIT or TAPR open license and
(iii) for design or content, a CC-BY license
? An existing prototype of the open source solution with promising results from initial pilots
? Solution has the potential to positively impact the lives of the most vulnerable children
? Generating publicly exposed real-time data that is measurable
? UNICEF’s Innovation Principles
For more details, visit UNICEF website
